Construction Careers charter school introduces hands-on curriculum
By Elisabeth Reeder For The St. Louis American
Construction Careers Center High School is excited to incorporate the Project Lead the Way curriculum during the 2009-2010 school year.
Project Lead the Way is a project based, hands-on curriculum that introduces high school students to the design process and basic engineering concepts. When a school becomes certified to teach a Project Lead the Way class, high-achieving students are able to earn college credit for their work in these courses.
This year the school has175 students enrolled in seven sections of the Introduction to Engineering course.
As an instructor of this class, I have watched the Construction Careers Center High School students respond with enthusiasm.
One of the first assignments was to re-design the typical coffee cup. Students were allowed to work in teams to brainstorm and sketch ideas for improving the coffee cup by making it more functional.
The students had many innovative ideas, for example, having the cup change colors depending on the interior liquid’s temperature and including a mini television screen on the side.
Soon after the re-design project, my students were very excited to research the evolution of a consumer product that they use every day. Each student chose a product and they created PowerPoint presentations that were shared with the rest of the class.
Some examples of the products that they researched are: game systems, cellular phones, body armor, and toilet paper. Not only did the students gain a tremendous amount of information from their research and fellow student’s presentations, but I also learned a significant amount about the history of these goods.
As we begin the 2nd quarter of our school year, my students are beginning a long-term project. They will be creating puzzle cubes. This project will require them to design several possible solutions, sketch these solutions in their engineering notebook, draw their product in AutoCAD Inventor software, build a prototype of their puzzle, and finally create the packaging of their cube as if it would be marketed and sold. The project will last approximately 3 weeks.
I have enjoyed watching my students gain confidence in themselves and their ideas as we have worked on these projects. They have become better communicators and are learning to embrace challenges rather than run from them.
I believe that these students will leave my class with the ability to think through a problem and determine several possible solutions. They will be able to examine the options and make the best choice based the constraints inherent in the problem.
Because of these positive effects, I look forward to Construction Careers Center High School’s continued connection with the Project Lead the Way curriculum.
Elisabeth Reeder teaches Introduction to Engineering, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra at Construction Careers Center High School.